IT leaders are being given more responsibilities as businesses accelerate their digital transformation journeys. According to new research from Adobe,Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are helping organisations shape their return-to-work plans.

In order to better understand how the CIO’s role has evolved owing to the impact of the pandemic, Adobe surveyed more than 500 CIOs across the US (200), EMEA (150) and APAC (156) regions.

As per the survey, 98 per cent of Indian CIOs (compared to 92 per cent in the US, 83 per cent in EMEA and 94 per cent in APAC) reported an increase in their responsibilities.

“In just a year, we went from a world with digital capabilities to a digital-first economy, which placed immense pressure on many leaders, including CIOs—many of whom were tasked with taking on a range of new responsibilities,” said Nitin Singhal, Managing Director, Digital Experience, Adobe India.

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“Besides the pressure to accelerate their organisation’s digital transformation at record pace, they had to embrace their expanded role and influence as an opportunity to drive progressive digital-first programs and further collaborate with other business leaders to succeed in today’s new digital-first reality,” added Singhal.

Furthermore, 96 per cent of Indian CIOs have more influence on leadership decisions (compared to 83 per cent in U.S., 85 per cent in EMEA, 94 per cent in APAC) while for 98 per cent share, their organisational structures have been reimagined to meet the changing needs brought on by a transition to a digital-first economy.

Focus on cloud

Among the many priorities CIOs must now manage, customer experience is ranked the highest by Indian CIOs (92 per cent, compared to 38 per cent in U.S., 67 per cent in EMEA, 74 per cent in APAC). According to the survey, up to 50 per cent of Indian CIOs singled out hybrid and public cloud as the most likely area for increased investment in 2021.

“Over the past year, CIOs have been able to further improve digital customer experiences, but these experiences have also become more complex,” said Singhal.

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“Moving forward, CIOs need to think about the integrated technology tools and infrastructure frameworks necessary to help their organisations effectively and securely capture customer data, convert that data into valuable insights, and utilize those insights to shape a personalized and enhanced customer experience,” Singhal added.

Collaboration

Additionally as more teams get directly involved in shaping the customer experience, CIOs regularly partner with their peers. IT leaders regularly collaborate with two or more C-level colleagues on customer experience management (CXM) initiatives.

In India, CIOs most regularly partner with their organisation’s CTO followed by the CMO. Globally, 95 per cent of CIOs strongly agree that partnering with the CMO improves their organisation’s customer experience. Similarly, 93 per cent say that working closely with CMOs promotes innovation.

Nearly 60 per cent of CIOs now meet with their CMO counterpart on a daily or weekly basis, as per the report.

“It’s no secret that close alignment between CXOs leads to more personalised customer as well as employee experiences, but the COVID-19 impact has made this level of partnership indispensable,” added Singhal.

Employee experience

Apart from customer experiences, CIOs are also applying customer journey management practices and principles to shape employee experiences amid the new “work from anywhere” environment.

89 per cent of CIOs see themselves as change agents who play a role in improving the culture of their organisation. 80 per cent of Indian CIOs foresee their organisation focusing more on productivity than time measures (compared to 36 per cent for US, 41 per cent for EMEA, 57 per cent for APAC), while 71 per cent are willing to hire from anywhere in the country and world (compared to 29 per cent for US, 37 per cent for EMEA, 44 per cent for APAC).

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Additionally, 63 per cent of Indian CIOs are ready to implement a shorter workweek for their employees as compared to 7 per cent for the US, 27 per cent in EMEA, and 41 per cent across APAC.

“Given the proven association between happy employees, satisfied customers and overall business success – it’s more critical than ever that CIOs become changemakers within their organisations and prioritise any systems or business processes that improve collaboration, productivity and overall employee experience,” Singhal said.

The research was conducted in association with Advanis between February 18 and March 4, 2021. It gained insights from CIOs from India, US, UK, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore, based in firms from various industries and with at least 100 employees.

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